Luchini, Tesson, Gamblin, Ladreit de Lacharrière... The little theater of friendly people according to Ribes

Dominique Besnehard, “our Queen of England”. Jacques Gamblin, “brother of Postman Cheval”. Jean-Claude Gallotta, “hopping like a kid”. Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, a “mischievous billionaire”. Fabrice Luchini, “almost a friend”. Judith Magre, “coal-eyed lioness”. Philippe Tesson, a “marmoset”. Jean-Pierre Mocky, a “Gueulard”. James Thierrée, "a bird of paradise"... In his Dictionary of my recommendable friends (Acte Sud editions), Jean-Michel Ribes, 76, paints a portrait of personalities they love and admire and who accompanied him , sometimes helped, throughout his journey. Particularly during the twenty years he spent as director of the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris.

Also readThe theater of Philippe Tesson: “Homage to Ribes”

The friend of Roland Topor and Fernando Arrabal, author of Musée haute, musée bas, in the theater, then in the cinema, has his entry into the world of entertainment as well as literature and politics. Sketched with an inspired pen, his portraits, more often devoted to men than to women, surprise, delight, amuse or reveal little secrets of no importance except for those interested. Embellished with anecdotes, they are as many slices of the life of Jean-Michel Ribes, a cocktail of his dreams realized, or not, of his providential encounters or his future desires (he does not fail to salute Laurence de Magalhaes and Stéphane Ricordel, his successors at the head of “his” former theater).

Anyone who has practiced resistance laughter is not stingy with confidences. We learn that Pierre Arditi can swallow an “infinite quantity of tiny mint lozenges” every day, that Jean-Claude Grumberg is a “rattle professional,” that Sébastien Thiéry made his acquaintance by knocking on his door at 7 a.m. morning, in a tailcoat, arms full of a four-star breakfast. That Jacques Weber was, like him, a candidate to take over the management of the Théâtre du Rond-Point.

We can guess the mischief of Jean-Michel Ribes when he recounts the arrival of Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron at the home of Julie Gayet and François Hollande for a dinner “between intimates” or the Sarkozy-Hollande “duel”. Some texts are moving. Thus the tribute to the late Philippe Khorsand, his accomplice in the Palace series or the reaction of producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, “more Guitry than Guitry”, at the time of the death of his wife.

At the end, Ribes draws up a list of those who were his friends “without knowing it” and of whom he was theirs “without them knowing it”: Federico Fellini, Juliette Gréco, Peter Brook, Cyrano de Bergerac.. .A practical book that you can put in your pocket and from which you can peck according to your sympathies.

» Dictionary of my recommendable friends, book by Jean-Michel Ribes, Éditions Actes Sud, 224 pages, €19.80.